Student Experiences of the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme

82 ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE?crammed into this dingy old part of the building. (Deirdre, 22, completedLCA, unemployed)Similarly, Elizabeth reported a physical separation between the LCA andother Leaving Certificate classes, with the LCA group placed alongsidejunior cycle classes:You were put in a different side of the school … but basically you actually haveno interaction with all the other Leaving Certs, you didn’t get along and then,because of that, that stereotypical thing of like, what you were in LCA, peopledidn’t really like associate with you. … And after finishing school girls kind oftold you, well, we know that we didn’t speak to you when we were in school. …Yeah, it’s like we’re up near first years and second years and they’re down nearfifth years and sixth years. (Elizabeth, 25, completed LCA, employed)The labelling of LCA by their peers raised a broader issue aboutperceptions of the programme, in particular, the lack of awareness of theprogramme among family, friends and society generally. Many respondentssuggested that people were unaware of the purpose and content of LCAwhich resulted in negative perceptions of the programme. Sarah would liketo see a greater understanding of the role of LCA in improving youngpeople’s attitudes to school and increasing rates of retention:Is there anything you would change about the programme?I’d probably … get it known more outside of school than anything. I think everyschool should have it by right. … This way … they can be brought step by stepthrough it like and they still get a Leaving Cert out of it. Whereas otherwise yousee people dropping out at sixteen, seventeen, because the pressure gets too much.(Sarah, 21, completed LCA, employed)Fiona felt frustrated at the negative status of LCA in her school andmore widely, feeling she had to hide the fact that she took the course fromemployers and friends. Like Sarah, she argued for greater awareness of theopportunities open to LCA graduates:I think it was the whole thing of things people say, like you’ll only get kind ofPLC courses. … People should know that you can actually go further than justgetting a PLC course and getting FETAC level 5 and working childcarefacilities … you know, people can do whatever. (Fiona, 25, completed LCA,employed)In sum, smaller class size and learning approaches facilitated thedevelopment of a tighter bond among LCA students. However, manyyoung people reported a lack of social interaction with other LeavingCertificate students and, in some cases, negative labelling of their class as‘thick’ or ‘slow’. This labelling was seen as reflecting a lack of awarenessamong their peers, society and the media of the potential benefits of theLCA programme.